A ground-breaking fertility arts education project
Modern Families was a collaboration between Fertility Fest, University College London’s Institute for Women’s Health and Cardiff University’s School of Psychology. It was a part of the UK’s Fertility Education Initiative, chaired by Professor Adam Balen and supported by the British Fertility Society, Arts Council England, the Barbican, Bush and National Theatre.
The aim of the project was to use the power of the arts to increase fertility awareness amongst young people to help them develop understanding of their own fertility, modern family-making and reproductive science in order to improve their life choices.
The project reached the front page of The Times newspaper, spawning a national media debate, and the findings of the project were later published in the leading academic journal Human Fertility and described in peer review as providing a ‘mind-blowing perspective on infertility’.
This all contributed to the Government’s announcement that from 2019, a broader approach to fertility education would be included on the curriculum for the first time.
